2015 Toyota Prius

On the morning of December 11th, 2024, the brake system warning light (ABS, yellow) illuminated on the dashboard along with the red BRAKE indicator and the yellow Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) system light. I consulted a mechanic who performed a computer diagnostic and informed me that the ABS module booster had failed. He said that will order the part to change it but meanwhile he advised me to drive more cautiously and maintain a greater distance from the vehicle ahead, allowing extra space for my car to stop due to the increased braking distance caused by the failed ABS module booster. Later that day, at approximately 5:30 PM, I was driving home in heavy traffic, with speeds not exceeding 40 miles per hour. The vehicle in front of me began to decelerate abruptly. When I applied firm pressure to the brake pedal to slow down my car, it lost all control. The vehicle began to skid, with the amplitude of the skid increasing progressively. It struck the highway guardrail on the left, changed trajectory, crossed all four lanes to the right uncontrollably, and ultimately collided with the highway guardrail on the right side.

There is a known brake booster issue with the Toyota Prius. They extended the coverage to 150,000 miles. My car is at 127,000 miles and they said the repair isn't under warranty and will cost over $3,000 to fix. There was no pre-warning lights or information received about this repair notice. I only noticed this when the lights came on and our ABS lights went out. When I took it in they said I missed the deadline by 5 days, that I would have had to let them know by 11/20/2024. Which is insane for such a huge issue when I am well under the mileage coverage.

The clear coat on the roof of my 2015 Prius began to peel little by little starting around 2021. What started out as small patches has now become large patches on various parts of the roof. The clearcoat is also beginning to peel right below the windows on the passenger side, close to where the door panel and the window meet. It's unsightly and I have not had this happen to any of my other vehicles in the past. I've done nothing different in the handling/washing/parking of the vehicle compared to my previous cars.

As many others have reported, the Brake Accumulator has failed. The symptoms began at 100,000 miles. When reported to the dealership, was brushed off as not a safety concern. It is, indeed, a major safety concern. My partner had the ABS lights come on and brakes freeze up while driving on a fast and congested highway. Furthermore, getting this repaired is nearly impossible. The only Toyota dealership in town is estimated a $5k price. And since independent shops often cannot perform this repair, there is no comparison possible. They simply push to buy a new vehicle instead of standing by one that should be operating normally. The dealership is Miracle Toyota of North Augusta SC. Consistently does not support the consumers concerns and simply pushes repurchase as the only reasonable avenue. This is a known issue for Toyota that has stranded many of us without the ability to keep this car on the road. Please resolve with reasonable repair options due to faulty design.

My vehicle has an ongoing issue with the headlights not being bright enough to drive at night with. I have replaced the headlights more than 5 times now over the course of a year, each time with different brands including Toyota OEM headlights. Each time, they are still not sufficiently bright enough to see with at night. This has led to 3 collisions with curbs and objects which caused damage to my vehicle, because I could not see the objects while having to drive at night. I have brought the issue up to Toyota and they said they would not do anything about it. I brought it in for service to Toyota and they tried to charge me $200 to even look at it, money which I do not have. I am forced to continue driving at night for work and fear I will get into a more serious crash or hit a pedestrian as the headlights aren't bright enough to see safely at night. The photo I have included shows a gash in the tire and dent in the rim where it hit the curb. The issue seems to be the headlight wiring or connectors. When I replace the headlight bulbs, they are a bit brighter initially. Thus initial brightness only lasts about a week, and it's still not sufficiently bright to drive safely. They then dim even further to the point where it's like driving without headlights at all. Again this has led to 3 collisions at this point since I'm required to drive at night and don't have the money to fix it. Toyota refused a good faith repair and did not acknowledge there was an issue, however if you do a web search for "Prius headlights too dim" it seems to be a major issue with many other Prius owners. It should be noted that even the high beam headlights are not bright enough to sufficiently see with at night.

My brake booster is failing and has been confirmed with Certified Toyota Master Mechanics at Toyota Dealerships that it is failing. Toyota has a CSP Called ZJB to replace these once the brake booster fails. My car has been identified as one of the cars with a faulty brake booster and I’m terrified to continue to drive it as it has to throw a code and break before they will change the faulty part. I want them to fix it before it fails and someone gets hurt. What do I do? There are a lot of other complaints about this but Toyota is not fixing them until they break. This is a huge safety issue.